As part of its growing year round programme, MAMI premiered the powerful, award winning film Felicite on April 26. Directed by Alain Gomis, Felicite won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlinale this year.

Hosted by PVR Cinemas, the premiere saw a tremendous turn out of film buffs in the city as well as well-known personalities such as, Radhika Apte, Shlok Sharma, Sayani Gupta, Anurag Kashyap, Neeraj Ghaywan, Shlok Sharma and Patralekha.

Felicite has garnered phenomenal global acclaim; it was selected to compete for  the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, it then went on to win the Jury Grand Prix Award, the second most prestigious award at the festival. The film stars Véro Tshanda Beya as the title character.

This is French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis’s fourth feature film and the second time that the Mumbai Film Festival will premiere one of his films. His second feature, Aujourd’hui (World premiere – Main Competition section at Berlinale 2012), played at the Mumbai Film Festival in 2012. The Filmmaker has been making waves in the festival circuit since his debut feature L’afrance won him the Silver Leopard at Locarno International Film Festival 2001.

MAMI Creative Director Smriti Kiran said, “This year our focus is to grow the year round programme of the academy. Screening Felicite, a Silver Bear Grand Jury winner, for our audiences just two months after its world premiere is a milestone for MAMI. We hope that more filmmakers and producers show this kind of faith in us. Director Alain Gomes is an important and powerful voice. This only adds fuel to our passion to keep working towards strengthening our programme. We are fraught with challenges but Felicite has made the struggle worthwhile.”

Talking about their experience, actress Sayani Gupta said, “It was so powerful and absolutely real, from the imagination. Certain moments stay with you like patterns, design, texture. I think MAMI and Film Companion together have made a great platform. “

Director Neeraj Ghaywan said, “The film was great…and after Berlin they are straight away premiering it in India, that’s a huge one for MAMI! I hope a lot of people watch it.”